In the field of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
, a
chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the
chemical industryThe chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to modern world economy, converting raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work. In general, a chemical engineer is one who applies and uses principles of
chemical engineeringChemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with the application of physical science , and life sciences with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
in any of various practical applications; primarily with respect to the study of the design, manufacture, and operation of plant and machinery in industrial chemical and related processes.
In the field of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
, a
chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the
chemical industryThe chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to modern world economy, converting raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work. In general, a chemical engineer is one who applies and uses principles of
chemical engineeringChemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with the application of physical science , and life sciences with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
in any of various practical applications; primarily with respect to the study of the design, manufacture, and operation of plant and machinery in industrial chemical and related processes. However, modern chemical engineers are becoming more heavily involved in the development of new technologies such as fuel cells, hydrogen power and
nanotechnologyNanotechnology, shortened to "nanotech", is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.Nanotechnology is very diverse,...
, as well as working in fields such as
polymer engineeringPolymer engineering is generally an engineering field that designs, analyses, and/or modifies polymer materials. Polymer engineering covers aspects of petrochemical industry, polymerization, structure and characterization of polymers, properties of polymers, compounding and processing of polymers...
and
biomedical engineeringBiomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment.Biomedical engineering has only recently...
. A number of famous or historical chemical engineers can be found in the
list of chemical engineers.
History
The term appeared in print in 1839, though from the context it suggests a person with
mechanical engineeringMechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that was developed from the application of principles from physics and materials science. Mechanical engineering involves the analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of various systems...
knowledge working in the
chemical industryThe chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to modern world economy, converting raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
.
In 1880,
George E. DavisGeorge E. Davis is regarded as the founding father of the discipline of Chemical Engineering.Davis was born at Eton on 27 July 1850, the eldest son of George Davis, a bookseller. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a local bookbinder but he abandoned this trade after two years to pursue...
wrote in a letter to Chemical News 'A Chemical Engineer is a person who possesses chemical and mechanical knowledge, and who applies that knowledge to the utilisation, on a manufacturing scale, of chemical action.' He proposed the name Society of Chemical Engineers, for what was in fact constituted as the
Society of Chemical IndustryThe Society of Chemical Industry is a learned society set up in 1881 'to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit'...
. At the first General Meeting of the Society in 1882, some 15 of the 300 members described themselves as chemical engineers, but the Society's formation of a Chemical Engineering Group in 1918 attracted 400 members.
In 1924 the
Institution of Chemical EngineersThe Institution of Chemical Engineers is an international professional engineering institution with over 28,000 members in over 113 countries worldwide, founded in 1922, and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957.-Structure:...
adopted the following definition 'A chemical engineer is a professional man experienced in the design, construction and operation of plant and works in which matter undergoes a change of state and composition.' (The first female member joined in 1942.)
As can be seen from the later definition, the occupation is not limited to the
chemical industryThe chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to modern world economy, converting raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
, but more generally the process industries, or other situations in which complex physical and/or chemical processes are to be managed.
In 1951 the President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers said in his Presidential Address "I believe most of us would be willing to regard
Edward Charles HowardEdward Charles Howard FRS , the youngest son of the Duke of Norfolk, was a British chemist who has been described as "the first chemical engineer of any eminence....
(1774-1816) as the first chemical engineer of any eminence". Others have suggested
Johann Rudolf GlauberJohann Rudolf Glauber , a German-Dutch alchemist and chemist. Some historians of science have described him as one of the first chemical engineers...
(1604-1670) for his development of processes for the manufacture of the major industrial acids.
Overview
Historically, the chemical engineer has been primarily concerned with
process engineeringProcess engineering focuses on the design, operation and maintenance of chemical and other process manufacturing activities. Process engineering is often a synonym for chemical engineering but process engineers are found in a vast range of industries, such as the petrochemical, mineral processing,...
. The modern discipline of chemical engineering, however, encompasses much more than just process engineering. Chemical engineers are now engaged in the development and production of a diverse range of products, as well as in commodity and specialty chemicals. These products include high performance materials needed for
aerospaceAerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
,
automotiveModern automotive engineering is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufacture and operation of motorcycles, automobiles, buses and trucks and their respective engineering...
,
biomedicalBiomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment.Biomedical engineering has only recently...
,
electronicElectronics is a branch of science and technology that deals with the controlled flow of electrons. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation,...
,
environmentalEnvironmental engineeringis the application of science and engineering principles to improve the environment , to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate polluted sites.Environmental engineering involves water and air pollution control,...
and
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...
applications. Examples include ultra-strong fibers, fabrics, adhesives and composites for vehicles,
bio-compatible materialsBiocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials in various contexts. The term may refer to specific properties of a material without specifying where or how the material is used, or to more empirical clinical success of a whole device in...
for implants and prosthetics,
gelA gel is a solid, jelly-like material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute crosslinked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state...
s for medical applications, pharmaceuticals, and films with special dielectric, optical or
spectroscopicSpectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between radiation and matter as a function of wavelength . In fact, historically, spectroscopy referred to the use of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g. by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise...
properties for opto-electronic devices. Additionally, chemical engineering is often intertwined with
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
and
biomedical engineeringBiomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment.Biomedical engineering has only recently...
. Many chemical engineers work on biological projects such as understanding biopolymers (proteins) and
mapping the human genomeThe Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify and map the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint...
.
Employment and Salaries
In the United States of America, the
Department of LaborDepartment of Labor may refer to one of the following.*United States Department of Labor*Department of Labour *Georgia Department of Labor*Labour Department...
estimated in 2006 the number of chemical engineers to be 30,000. The average hourly wage for a chemical engineer was $39.23 per hour, but ranged from $24.07 to $57.05 per hour. The median annual salary for a chemical engineer was $78,860, with the middle 80 percent of chemical engineers making between $50,060 and $118,670 annually. Chemical engineering has been cited as the highest-paying degree for first employment of college graduates. Subsequently, a high-end salary grade is common to this profession in the USA.
In the UK, the
Institution of Chemical EngineersThe Institution of Chemical Engineers is an international professional engineering institution with over 28,000 members in over 113 countries worldwide, founded in 1922, and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957.-Structure:...
2006 Salary Survey reported an average over £53,000, with a starting salary for a graduate averaging £24,000.
See also
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a professional organization for chemical engineers.AIChE was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemists and mechanical engineers.As of 2005, AIChE had about 40,000 members,...
(AIChE)
- Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
- Fluid dynamics
In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
- Heat transfer
Heat transfer is the transition of thermal energy from a hotter object to a cooler object...
- History of chemical engineering
Chemical engineering as a discipline is a little over one hundred years old. It grew out of mechanical engineering in the last part of the 19th century, because of a need for chemical processors. Before the Industrial Revolution , industrial chemicals were mainly produced through batch processing. ...
- Institution of Chemical Engineers
The Institution of Chemical Engineers is an international professional engineering institution with over 28,000 members in over 113 countries worldwide, founded in 1922, and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957.-Structure:...
(IChemE)
- List of chemical engineering societies
- List of chemical engineers
- Mass transfer
Mass transfer is the transfer of mass from high concentration to low concentration. The phrase is commonly used in engineering for physical processes that involve molecular and convective transport of atoms and molecules within physical systems...
- Process control
Process control is a statistics and engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms, and algorithms for controlling the output of a specific process. See also control theory....
- Process design (chemical engineering)
- Process engineering
Process engineering focuses on the design, operation and maintenance of chemical and other process manufacturing activities. Process engineering is often a synonym for chemical engineering but process engineers are found in a vast range of industries, such as the petrochemical, mineral processing,...
- Unit operations
- WikiProject: Chemical and Bio Engineering
External links